The Silver FobWatch
by PhysicNightmare
Summary: ((Jareth OC)) So what's the mystery behind the FobWatch? Will the girl find the book? It's just a fairytale... Right? When Jess end's up babysitting for the most spoiled brat in town, she just needs to say the right word's to make it all go away...
1. Chapter 1

"Oh, before I go," said Mr. Jenson as he donned his coat, reaching a hand into his pocket. "I thought this might interest you."

His voice had dropped to a conspiratorial tone as he handed Jessica a tarnished, silver half hunter fobwatch. With an excited gasp and delicate fingers Jessica accepted it from him, looking hopefully at his excited brown eyes. Jessica turned her attention back down to the watch, engraved with an elaborate Celtic design. Though the hands were visible, it was difficult to discern the time for the visible inner workings of the watch distracted Jess's eyes. Upon clicking the device open, Jess was delighted to see the intricate cogs and wheels through a protective layer of quartz. Then, something strange about the Roman numerals caught her eye. The hour and minute hand were both frozen at XIII. "It has thirteen hours!"

"I know, isn't it strange?" he said, looking over his shoulder at the door through which the missus was waiting, likely with impatience. "It doesn't work, but I felt you would appreciate something odd like this."

"Of course I do, it's beautiful," Jessica said, gently tracing the etched design with a forefinger. "Thank you so much."

"Oh, you're welcome, you deserve it for taking care of Rachel tonight." A flash of disappointment, perhaps even embarrassment crossed his face. "But there's something else odd about this watch. I don't know if you'd be interested, but…I've looked all over and inside it, with a magnifying glass, no less, and I can't find any indication of the maker."

"Hm. Well, maybe I'll figure out the mystery of the thirteen-hour watch with no maker," Jess joked. He laughed his pensive laugh, toying with his wedding band as he looked from Jess to the watch.

Mrs. Jenson slammed the door open, red curls flouncing and button nose flaring with frustration, shaped eyebrows drawn sternly over her black eyes. "Timothy, sometime today? We're not paying this girl so you can sit around and chat while our dinner reservation gets passed down the waiting list!"

"Coming, dear," he said with a soft chuckle, shaking his head at Jess. "If she ever gets off that computer, tell her Daddy loves her."

"Will do, Mr. Jenson."

"I've told you, call me Tim."

Jess smiled as he left, weighing the watch in her hand. As she walked slowly down the hall, Jess thought over the issue of the creator-less watch. Perhaps there was a place he had overlooked. Then again, he was a clever man and one with a keen eye; Jess recalled one time he had described every single thing she'd been wearing on a five-second chance encounter at the supermarket. He did not easily overlook anything, and Jess doubted she could find anything he'd missed.

In any case, it was a really beautiful watch.

It was in her nature to avoid babysitting kids like this. But Jess needed the money. She really, really needed the money.

* * *

"I'm bored," whined the blond-haired little girl for the fifth time in twenty minutes, letting her pink DSI fall to the floor. "What can I do?"

Jess tried really hard to keep patient, tugging a hand down her face as she thought through a list of ideas she'd already tried. "You're seven, aren't you? That's old enough to read. Go read something."

"But I don't know what I could read!"

Patience. Patience. "Come on," Jess sighed, getting up from her cross-legged ponder session in the family's nice leather chair.

To quell Jess's annoyance at this unimaginative child as she led her to her father's library, she reminded herself why she needed to be here. It wasn't just the money she needed; it was the trust. Mrs. Jenson tended not to like Jess very much, for reasons she couldn't quite put a finger on; and while she normally wouldn't care the opinion of some stuck-up interior designer who had very little to do with Jess's life, she did care in this instance, because she liked Mr. Jenson. He was a really cool guy, and Jess really could talk for hours with him about practically anything. And if she wanted to keep that up, she would have to stay on Mrs. Jensen's good side, and that meant keeping her spoiled little daughter happy.

Mr. Jenson's library smelled like books. It didn't smell like dusty or damaged books, but not quite like new ones; it had the slightly musty smell of well-loved books. It was a small room, about eight by ten feet, with full bookshelves on two opposite walls and a window with a cushioned ledge on the wall opposing the door. Beside the window was a well-worn leather armchair, cracked and faded on the one arm exposed to the sun beaming through the window. There was one heavy velvet curtain at the window and it was always tucked up to one side, dust settled on the folds to show it hadn't been moved in some time.

"Alright," Jess said, thrusting energy into the syllables as Rachel took a seat on the ledge and kicked her legs against the wall under it. Ignoring the sound of the child's heels no doubt scuffing the mint green wall, Jess drew a finger along the spines of some thick romance novels. "Probably not." Her eyes scanned the shelves until Jess found one with thin picture books and bright covers.

"Dr. Seuss," Jess muttered. "Ooh, Charlotte's Web…Huckleberry Finn…Ah, yes, Grimm's Fairytales…" Jess's brow furrowed at the unmarked red spine of a leather-bound book. It bore no dust jacket, and as she slid it out from its spot, she suspected it might even be hand bound.

The leather was soft, scuffed around the edges, the front cover was bordered with two thin black lines about an inch from each other and acting as a track for ten blocky black roses.

"The Labyrinth." Jess ran a finger over the embossed yellow words upon the surface, quirking an eyebrow. "I've never heard of this book." With the care of holding a butterfly, Jess stroked the yellowed pages and pressed a page open, leafing briefly through the pages. She glanced back at the bored little girl, her chubby hands picking at a loose thread in the cushion. There's no way she would be interested in this book.

But Jess would be.

"Here," Jess said, coming to her with the first book of A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

She took Bad Beginnings and opened it just past the title page, scanning it with her nose turned up. Jess watched intently for her to take interest. "I don't like it."

"You've only just started—"

"It's says things what are confusing," she sneered, "just like Daddy. He says silly words that don't make sense."

"Well, he does have an impressive vocabulary," Jess remarked fondly, smirking.

"I can't read that one," she said, pointing to Twain's work. "Mommy said it says a bad word what rhymes with Tigger."

"Well of course it does, it was written in—" Jess huffed in exasperation. The only DVDs this little girl owned were things like High School Musical and movies about talking dogs who acted a lot more like humans than dogs. Jess doubted she even knew who Tigger was. "Do you even know who Tigger is?"

She shook her head. Jess turned back to the bookshelf, scanning with purpose this time. Her finger touched the spine of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh as her eye snagged on a book on the shelf just above. "Oh he even has the Tao of Pooh. I'm impressed."

Jess handed the book to the bored girl and opened it for her, coaxing her to read as Jess took her seat in Mr. Jenson's chair. Upon opening the book in her hands, she noted the curving, twining design on the end-papers. It looked hand-drawn.

The title page simply read "The Labyrinth" and when she turned the page, it was blank. There was no publisher (as you could expect from a hand-bound book) and there was no year, and there was no author. Thoroughly intrigued, Jess began to read.

Tried to. And then, "This book is for babies. I don't like it."

"Well do you want to pick out one for yourself?" Jess offered, patiently.

"No. I don't like reading. Daddy reads too much and it makes him weird," she huffed, throwing the book down.

"Hey!" Jess immediately jammed her tongue into her cheek and dove for the book, leaving The Labyrinth on the chair behind you. "Look, you've dented the pages…augh. New idea. You don't get to be in the library."

"Good!" and she stomped out of the room as Jess stroked and replaced the abused book. Jess had only just picked up the red book when she yelled from down the hall, "So what can I do?"

Jess groaned. "What toys do you have?"

"Toys?" she asked, making an exaggerated effort to sound like she had never heard of the thing before.

"I know you have toys."

She did have toys.

She had six-hundred and twenty-seven of them. "Daddy made me count them when I was bored once."

"That's brilliant," you laughed to yourself. "Well why don't you play with any of them?"

"I do!"

Jess raised an eyebrow.

"I _do!_"

"Well then, why don't you play with them right now?"

The opening and closing of her mouth and wandering eyes indicated her carefully chosen but failed attempts at argument, and she sighed in defeat.

**Woop! First chapter of a new Romantic/Adventure story, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Feedback? Sorry if there's any word's misspelled, I'm quite Ill at the moment. **


	2. A Surprise Summoning

Jess motioned to a corner of the girl's room in which there was an open Barbie doll house with at least fifteen dolls all neatly lined up. Above that were two shelves, opposite each other on the walls, on which 30 Monster High dolls stood in their stands. "Look, you even have boy dolls. You can make them kiss or something."

She gasped and looked at Jess like "ooh, you're in trouble."

"Oh please, you watch Nickelodeon, you practically know about sex already," Jess wanted to say. But she didn't. Instead, Jess said, "I'm sorry. Play with them how you want."

Jess waited until the girl was on her knees with two dolls in her hands before Jess left and took a seat in the living room just through the door. The Labyrinth was opened a third time, and she began to read.

Then Jess heard, through the wall, in the voice of a girl imitating a man, "Dear, do you want to hear the new words I just learned? I am going to use them to confuse Rachel because she is stupid and doesn't know that I just make all them up."

"Not now, honey," replied another doll in a high-pitched voice. "I'm on a conifrience call and it's very important. It is three o'clock, you should go to work before Rachel wakes up."

"Goodbye dear, I am going to make up more big words."

Is that what Rachel thought her parents were like? Jess was sure Mr. Jenson didn't use big words just to make his daughter feel stupid. Likely, he was trying to integrate them in her vocabulary. What was keeping him from failing?

Jess heard her normal voice. "Mommy do you want to play with me?"

"I can't sweetie, I have to go do errints. Go read."

"But the words make me dizzy."

"Go watch TV, I love you, bye."

Jess shook her head and returned attention to her book. It seemed simple at first, but held the promise of a much greater story. Perhaps it was simply the mysterious construction of a book. Maybe it was just a girl's typed diary, for whatever reason. It's what it sounded like, at first. "'What no one knew is that the king of the goblins had fallen in love with the girl, and he had given her certain powers,'" Jess read aloud as Rachel's dolls began to talk again, to keep herself focused. And Jess was not even halfway down the page before Rachel called out:

"I'm hungry!"

"Rachel, your mum told me she already gave you dinner," Jess called back through the wall. Jess neglected to mention that Mrs. Jenson had also said Rachel could have a snack, but that was because she knew Mr. Jenson disapproved of his daughter eating too much at night; it kept her up.

"But I'm starving!"

Jess watched the chubby seven-year old glare at her from the door.

"You're not starving," Jess said. "I don't think you're hungry, either. I think you're just bored."

"I'm hungry!"

"Alright, well…ugh…" Could she at least let her finish the page? "Look. Go play with your dolls some more and if you're still hungry in ten minutes, I'll make you something."

"Fine," she huffed, stomping back into her room.

Jess scanned the page for the right sentence. "'"Choose your right words," the goblins said,'" Jess whispered to herself. "'But she knew that if—'"

"HAS IT BEEN TEN MINUTES YET?"

"No! I'll tell you!"

Jess clenched her teeth and read with vigor, easing into the setting as she flipped the page.

"I'm _starving!_" wailed Rachel.

"Ugh," Jess groaned, clapping the book closed and putting it down. "Fine! You win. I'll make you food."

"Yay!"

"I wish the goblins would come and take _you_ away right now," Jess muttered, getting together the ingredients for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And of course the jelly was not allowed to drip onto her pink plastic plate, and there could be no crust, and the sandwich had to be cut in four triangular sections, and each cut must be done with a clean knife so no jelly or peanut butter got on the edges. After an absurd number of minutes of sandwich preparation and several wipes of the knife on a wet towel, Jess brought the sandwich to her room.

"Rachel?" Jess looked around, puzzled. "Rachel, sweetie, I have your sandwich." Jess set the plate on her bed, making her way to the first floor bathroom. "Rachel, I made you a snack…" But the door was unlocked and the bathroom was dark and vacant. She couldn't have gotten far, right? And Jess would have heard if she had gone upstairs or left the house. Jess tried the library, she tried her father's study, Jess tried Rachel's parents' room. Jess went back down to the kitchen, looked in the laundry room and then the garage. "Rachel, this isn't funny, you're starting to scare me."

When Jess made it back to the girl's room, the lights were out. Jess huffed, willing her heart to slow down. "Very funny. You're not going to scare me, Rachel. You should at least say 'thank you' for th—"

"I am not the child," said a low, accented male voice tinged with the slight roughness of a smoker. Jess startled, slapping her hand on the light switch. The light remained off, and Jess backed slowly toward the door, eyes searching the dark room.

A shadow moved and Jess heard the door close behind her, and yelped. "Who are you?"

"You don't know?" the voice questioned with the most ominous air of nonchalance. "Have you really so short of a memory?"

"I've never met you in my life," Jess whispered, clearing her throat. "Who are you? Where's Rachel?"

Jess heard a snap and Rachel's nightlight came on, providing just enough light for her to make out a humanoid figure with long, spiky hair and a high collar. His eyes remained shaded but the shadow clearly defined his angled nose and thin lips, all features seemingly carved from stone until he spoke again. "Who would you think I am?"

Jess gasped at the sight of his pointed teeth. About to protest that she honestly did not know who he was and demand to have Rachel back, it suddenly hit her. "Are you…the Goblin King?"

He flashed a wicked grin, stepping into the low light. He was even more terrifying with his sharp eyes visible, and Jess stood mesmerized for a moment upon noticing one of his pupils was blown nearly as big as the iris around it.

"You…you took Rachel to your kingdom," Jess elaborated, horror-stricken. "Is she a goblin? This is bad, oh this is bad…she isn't even my kid!"

"Be calm," he commanded. "I am here to give you the reward for your payment."

"Payment?"

"A child," he said, "in exchange for your own world." Out of thin air, he produced a bubble and held it out before Jess's face. The shadow of an image flashed on its glassy surface before he pulled it back toward him and balanced it on one gloved finger. As he spoke, the sphere danced across all his fingertips, back and forth. "You can have anything you dream," he said. "All the books in the world, your favorite games, the man you love. You can have a blank canvas on which to paint your existence. If I were you…I would accept."

This sounded far too good. "But what about Rachel? What will happen to her? What will Mr. Jenson think when he gets home and neither of us are here?"

"Only Mr. Jenson?"

"I meant both…"

"Well, what does it matter to you?" he practically purred. "You wouldn't have to worry about it in your world. You wouldn't have to worry about the bored little brat, either. I will take her in as my own. She will have a better upbringing in my castle than this neglectful house."

"They don't neglect her."

"Even you could tell she has trouble reading," he said. "Neither of her parents could see that, nor her teachers."

"How do you know all of this?" Jess asked, startled.

"The same way I knew you would summon my powers on this day," he explained simply. "I would bore you with all the details of the Oraculum, but if I am to be honest I don't fully understand it myself."

Jess shook her head. "Look…I'll do anything to get her back. That was a huge mistake, I didn't even believe you existed. I was being ironic."

He stayed silent for a long moment, not breathing, and then he let out an exasperated huff. "Why is it always this way…follow me," he droned, turning and tossing the crystal ball at the window. Jess winced as she expected it to shatter the glass, but as it met the pane the dark scene of night faded into a golden landscape over which wound an impressive maze, a castle planted far near the back.

Without even moving her feet, Jess found herself on a dirt path that wound down toward the outer wall of the maze, and she looked up in wonder at the King of Goblins, whose blond hair and sparkling, night blue cape fluttered in a warm breeze. He stepped back, pointing at a clock that seemed to appear out of nowhere and hung on nothing. "If you can make it to the center of the labyrinth in thirteen hours, you may have the child back."

Jess looked from him to the labyrinth. It didn't look very difficult from here, but perhaps she shouldn't get her hopes up on solving it too quickly. "And if I don't?"

"If you fail to solve it," he said, "you will return home without the child and face the consequences of your actions. If you give up before the thirteen hours, you may claim the world I have promised to you."

Jess nodded. "Good to know. And my time starts?"

"A minute ago."

Jess flashed him a determined glare, and set off down the path. Today was not a day to waste time.

"Before you start, I feel it's only fair to warn you," he called, "about the stairs."

Jess looked back, expecting some elaboration on this warning, but he was gone.

* * *

**Stair's what stairs, not what you would expect, Sarah had a easy run, This my friend. Is hardcore. **

**Hope you enjoyed the chapter! The next one will be up soon! **


	3. The Wandering Walls

**SO YEAH enjoy this chapter and um, if you catch more references please tell me because I have forgotten.  
Also let's see how long I can keep this alliteration up. I love alliteration it's fucking sexy.**

* * *

A tiny wisp of panic leaked into Jess' system when after about ten minutes of walking along the wall, she could find no opening to the labyrinth. If the King had put her at the complete opposite end from the opening, she felt she had the right to murder him.

Jess' breathing quickened and she placed both hands on the wall, giving the base of it a good kick, but not hard enough to hurt her toes. Taking a deep breath, she shook her head—and in that moment, she swore she could see something.

Jess shook her head again and a tall set of doors flashed into focus. When she stopped, she felt the wall in front of her, and only then did she notice it didn't feel like stone; it felt like old, splintered, painted wood. Squinting her eyes revealed the hazy outline of a doorknob. The cold metal against her fingers startled Jess and she felt at the knob until she could get a grip on it, and then she fumbled for the other. First, Jess tried pulling, which proved no result, and then she pushed, at the same time instinctively kicking her foot right in the seam of the invisible doors.

Jess nearly lost balance as the momentum of the heavy doors thrust her into a narrow hall. When she looked back, she could see the doors as they closed, but once they did they vanished back into illusion. "How very curious."

There was nothing but hallway. The walls rose high above Jess' head and stretched on for what seemed like miles. Weren't there turns? Was there another door for entry? Jess squinted, looking around, but there was no other door, at least under the same guise. Down past her feet the packed earth was strewn with glitter. It spread over the walls, too; a fair _film_ of glitter. A sheen of fine shimmering dust covered everything as well, for good measure. Jess looked down at her well-kept purple jeans, which she had picked out today because purple was Mr. Jenson's favorite color. If one fleck of glitter got on these things, she would be very, very cross.

That was enough time wasted taking in the scenery. Since Jess was facing this way, she guessed she'd go left. There was just this nagging feeling in the back of your mind to not turn right.

Jess had taken off at a slow jog, slowing down about five minutes in when she realized everything looked pretty much the same. Jess was not about to bother looking for another door; who knew how long that would take? So instead, her eyes settled on a twisted, sturdy-looking vine that cut across the path and snaked up one wall. Examining for footholds as she drew close, she wedged the left toe of her Converse into it and groped at a diverging vine above her head. It wasn't terribly far to the top of the wall, but still a dizzy feeling stole over her, and Jess climbed a bit slower than she had wished.

The vine lost its sturdiness about a half foot from the top, so Jess held her breath and planted her palms on the ledge and hoisted herself up. As she did, something in her jacket pocket grinded against the edge, and Jess heard a small _tink, tink_ when she turned to sit. Looking down, she saw that the watch had fallen, and Jess picked it up by the chain which had tangled in the vine.

It was working, to Jess' astonishment, when she clicked it open. It was now ten past thirteen.

Ten past thirteen.

Jess supposed she had been navigating the labyrinth for ten minutes now. Whether this was a coincidence or not, it was reassuring to be able to log her own time. Jess stood to her feet and pocketed the treasure, holding her arms out for balance as she took a few careful steps along the three-foot-wide stone wall. It looked like a maze again, from here. Jess' eyes wandered down the higher path, and soon she found a break in the wall. "Oh…it probably blends in with the rest of it." Jess couldn't understand why she hadn't been looking harder before. Then again, perhaps it was masked with another illusion.

The castle was a ways out, but she figured she could get there in under thirteen hours, assuming she could come up with a better method than this any time soon. Focusing on her feet, Jess noticed, once in a while, a milky orb protruding near the top of the walls. So far, they had all been to her left.

As Jess continued, she saw a dead end on her right, joining the wall to the next. Jess thought about this. The left path clearly continued on, and she needed to get there, because there was a wide gap in her wall where it led to the dead end. When she looked ahead, she saw that the left path branched off a second time to the right to a winding path that went on for a while. Jess could reach it by walking along the wall of your dead end.

"Easy," Jess hummed optimistically, diverging down the wall of the dead end. But the moment she reached her destination path, the wall ahead of her fell away, leaving a huge gap, and rendering she stranded on a disconnected wall. Jess watched in amazement as the maze changed before her eyes, bits moving here and there as she looked out over the landscape, and a feeling of discouragement filled her.

"Maybe I should have read more of that book," Jess muttered, looking down. Jess glared upward at nothing and then at the castle, startled when the look was responded to with a source-less voice.

"You're cheating," it said. "Cheaters never prosper."

"I wasn't aware this was some dumb kids show with clichéd morals," Jess snapped as she sat, heeling for a foothold in the wall. "You have a nice voice, though, I'll give you that."

"Oi, you," another voice said, though for the moment her mind passed it off as a trick of the ears, for in comparison it was so quiet. "You, tall person! I'm down 'ere!"

Jess landed jarringly on her feet and looked around, and saw a small blue caterpillar poking its head out of a crack in the wall. Jess had read enough Alice in Wonderland to know where this was going.

"Oh, uh…no thank you, not stopping for a smoke, I have somewhere to be," Jess said, heading down to the right.

"Don't go that way!" the creature squeaked.

Jess turned around. "Why not?"

"Don't go that way," he repeated, "it's dangerous! You should come inside and have a nice cup 'a tea."

As tempting as that sounded…"Why is it dangerous to go this way?" Jess asked. "So far, this whole place seems dangerous."

"I'm not dangerous," he assured. "I'm just a worm. But where you're headed is dangerous, you don't want to go that way."

"Why is it dangerous?"

"It's full 'a traps!" he explained. "Loads of 'em! If you go on to yer left, you'll have a much easier time."

"Why is it full of traps?" you asked.

"Wot? Why, because that's the way to the castle of the vicious Goblin King!"

Thought so. "Oh, thank you so much for your help," Jess said earnestly, giving the worm a light pat on the head. "I'm actually looking for the castle, so thank you."

"Wot? D'ye have a death-wish, missie? Oi! Look at me when I'm talkin' to ye!"

Jess took out the watch and checked it. Barely seven minutes had passed, but she set a goal for herself to feel like she had gotten somewhere by a half-hour in. The wall before her gave her a different feeling now that she knew it could change on a whim, and Jess was not about to let herself get trapped in here without knowing it.

Time to muscle up and become a climber. Climb the metaphorical Eche-ladder to success. Ascend.

Jess the climber. It's her.

Jess grabbed hold of a convenient vine, sturdy like the one at the beginning of her trek, and scaled it quickly, maneuvering down the other side of the wall as soon as you had made it to the top. There was no other vine in sight for the moment so she ran down to the next turn, soon finding a hall entirely covered in very healthy ivy-like plants. They were pretty, but they also served as a wonderful ladder. Once at the top of the next wall, Jess got her bearings, and turned herself in the direction of the castle. It still wasn't out of the question to find a better system than this, but she figured it would come to her eventually, and stopping to think about it would only eat away at her precious time.

* * *

"This is no good," the Goblin King muttered. "She's far too clever. She's navigating this labyrinth faster than I can think to reconstruct it!"

"She's smart like my daddy," Rachel sighed, brushing the whiskers of a patient goblin. "She'll find me."

Jareth sneered at the little girl. "Though she isn't as wise. She is still young. I have time on my side. I have _thousands_ of years on my side."

Rachel wrinkled her nose. "How old are you?"

"Old enough to outwit a girl."

Rachel nodded, continuing her focus on the goblin before her. "Do you do this kind of thing a lot?"

"I've done it before, yes."

"Are they always girls about her age?"

"Sometimes younger," he said impatiently. "What is the point of this?"

"Do you always win?"

The King stayed silent.

"Wow," the little girl exclaimed innocently. "You've even had girls dumber than her down here, and they beat you, too."

* * *

**I was really gonna write at least half of this and then start posting in moderation, but it's...it's kind of an addiction.**

**Also great job if you caught the references in the last chapter, yes the Oraculum was an allusion to Tim Burton's _Alice in Wonderland_**  
**and then of course there was the warning about the Stairs..**


	4. A Pseudo Paradox

Jess' POV:

"But," I posed to the twin guards, "how do I know that _you're_ not the liar, and therefore your entire statement is false? How do I know you wouldn't both lie to me?"

"Wh—" The furry-muzzled guard in blue turned to his puzzled counterpart, then looked at me and sternly cleared his throat. "We can't answer that!"

"You could be lying about that, too," I said, voice calm and arms folded. "I'm not sure I wanna take this gamble."

"Well you can't go any other way!"

I sighed, and looked at one of them to the other, and then down at my tired feet. I had stopped climbing walls on account of how very tired my arms had become from nearly an hour of it. But I was boxed into one part of the maze with no way out save through either one of these doors or climbing one of the walls.

"Good day to you, sirs," I said, taking hold of a fairly thin vine and kicking a loose brick in a bit for a foothold. "And by good day, I mean it is a good day whether you want it or not. Note that I leave this place with a smile on my face and a tip of the proverbial hat, whilst you stay good as bolted to the wall."

With a smirk toward their protesting, stuttering faces, I scaled the wall, and was just about to launch down to the other side when my heart skittered and I nearly fell backward.

Down below there was a pit descending down so far, I couldn't even see the bottom.

"I suppose I deserved that," I muttered.

"Of course you did, cheater," the Goblin King's voice snarled from behind me. Upon turning, I saw the wall disappear just behind his leather-booted feet as His Furious Highness folded his very poofy-sleeved arms over a tight fitting leather vest. Or man corset. I was not quite sure what he was going for. I might have almost felt intimidated, had his face not reminded me of a vengeful child whose toy had just been taken by an authority figure.

"It's not cheating," I said, keeping my spine straight and my chin high. "It's called being clever. Like card counting. It isn't illegal, only frowned upon, and only because people are jealous of mad intellectual skill."

"Intellectual. A bloody _monkey_ can climb a wall," he seethed. "You are proving to be a little infuriating. Why do you want to take all the fun out of this?"

"Because it isn't fun for me," I said. "I'm getting paid good money to babysit and all, but this was not in the job description. And before you say this was my fault, you tricked me. I didn't ever ask you to exist." I looked back, and the wall on that side still existed. I took a couple steps, though I knew what would happen next.

Enough wall crumbled away for me not to be able to jump it.

"Are you really going to make this so difficult?" He sighed, and I heard a flashing sound like one of those strobe fireworks as before my eyes, glass shards and barbs grew up out of the tops of the walls. "How trashy. Do you see what you make me do?"

I simply glared back at him, annoyed, and carefully descended from my place on the wall back into the section with the doors. "How do you even know where I am?"

He ignored the question, suddenly appearing beside me. "Now of course, if you try anything else—"

"Are you like a stalker or something?"

Ignored. "I might have to bind those sturdy legs of yours." He practically purred the words, lips so close to my ear, which perked up involuntarily. Moving from one side to my other, he drew a finger up the side of my thigh, making me shiver. Oh. "It would be such a shame. But if necessary, I will make this game _much_ harder for you." An intrusive gloved hand brushed back some hair away from my ear and I could almost feel his lips. "Of course, if you would take up my offer…"

Nope, he wasn't gonna play that way. "I bet it's that globe thing."

"What?"

One of those glass half-spheres was nestled in the corner of the "room" in which I was trapped in. Shifting away from him, I toed off a shoe and flung it at the curious object, and it shattered, leaving a whisp of white powdery essence to evaporate into the air.

"Hey!" he shouted, completely losing any cool he had. I watched him, amused, as he tried to regain his regal composure. "To ensure the safe performance of all authorized activities, please do not destroy vital monitoring apparatus. You impetuous child."

"Well you put me on a time limit in a puzzle game. You can bet I'll be impetuous."

He narrowed his eyes. "Don't try to be cute. If you don't play fair, I might not play fair, either."

"You said to make it to the center. In my eyes, I am not cheating."

But he had already vanished, leaving a cloud of glitter and smoke in his wake, which got all up in my purple pants.  
"_Not cool,_ Goblin jerk!"

"So?" said one of the guards, startling me back to the task. "Which one of us?"

I thought. "While it's possible you might both lead to certain death…or both to safety, or you really are telling the truth and one of you is the liar…let's think about this. Red is usually a warning, and blue generally promotes a calming feeling…"

"You're supposed to ask a question!"

"Shh," I snapped. "Now, considering this is a puzzle maze, Goblin Jerk could have chosen these colors intentionally. Simple case of reverse psychology. Easy. Hey, rojo, open up."

"Eh?" asked both the doormen, obviously perplexed.

"Rojo. Red. Rouge." I snapped my fingers. "Chop chop, I'm on a tight schedule."

The red guard differed to his partner, who shrugged, and the door I chose swung open.

Perhaps, I only thought after stepping across the threshold, it would have been wise to at least pose a question on the off-chance their tale had been true, just for safe assurance. So I stepped carefully, looking for possible signs in the walls, checking the floor for diamond shapes; as if I really believed the King would give such a warning of traps or hazards. I tip-toed carefully, not certain what good that would do, and soon the hall into which the door had opened led back into the labyrinth, no harm done.

"Well that was a humongous waste of time."

But now, which way to turn? There was three directions from which I could choose, and I began quickly reasoning with myself, trying to deduce which path might lead to the labyrinth; but this place was so unpredictable and defied normal laws of physics, so Sherlocking my way out was really not a reliable option. I let off a frustrated groan and kicked at a stone, picking it up to throw it at a crystal half-sphere at the entrance to one of the paths on impulse.

"Hey!" cried the King's outraged, disembodied voice. "What've I told you about that? Why are you even breaking them? What purpose does it serve you?"

"Well, obviously," I growled, formulating a theory in my mind. "They're essential to you keeping me from solving this maze. Therefore, my smashing them actually does benefit me, even if I can't see how. Now, from your words earlier, I know you're using them to monitor me. So they're like cameras, in a way. And if I break them, you can't see me. And I am going to win." And, I thought, they might act as a nice breadcrumb trail, assuming they were only put in places that lead down the right paths. So I took that one, careful not to step on the broken shards, and continued with a smug smile.

This quickly disappeared as suddenly as did the ground beneath me.

* * *

**Hello! Yes I am the nasty writer who gives cliffhangers to my lovely readers. :D **

**Anyway hope you enjoyed the next chapter of this book thing.**

**So. Yup. :D**


	5. The Corkscrewed Corridor

"Hello?" Jess called, coughing into a dust cloud. "Is this part of the labyrinth?"

The room, more of a dirt cave, was dark, tank and utterly deserted, dusted with cobwebs and...more glitter.

"Hello?" It couldn't have been a very long fall, because Jess did ache but clearly nothing was broken or sprained.

The only visible way out was back up through that hole in the ceiling, and Jess could see no way up. There was no ladder, no vine, not a piece of furniture or scrap wood or rope, and she began to wonder where video-games got the idea that random dirt caves _always_ had some sort of primitive man-made tool for escaping.

But the watch was still running; that had to mean something. Tentatively, Jess bounced up and down on the ground, finding it was no more than compacted earth. As she took her steps to the wall, she listened and felt for creak or bow but sensed none, beginning to wrap on the dirt wall. Nothing, nothing, nothing-

_Tk tk tk._ Wood. Jess brushed the dirt away sideways to avoid splinters, kicking the base of the door to shake off more. There was a smooth spot under her hand as she brushed it across the door, and it was soon revealed to be a sign.

"Mirage Emergency Shut Down and Tea Dispensary."

Yeah right, Jess thought. It was definitely a trap, but it wasn't as though she had a plethora of options. But as she tucked her fingers under the edge, a trickle of water caught her attention and dampened the floor. Jess continued to pull, though cautiously. And just as it threatened to give, Jess felt a shock to her stomach that made her jump back.

"Ah!"

Confused, Jess took the watch out of her jacket pocket, assuming it was the source, and without being prompted-it opened. But that wasn't the strangest part. It opened against the hinge.

Jess gazed at it, at first puzzled, and then realized it must be an illusion. But was it a meaningful illusion?

Jess pondered on it for a moment, and as though driven partially by instinct, her fingers moved themselves under the other side of the door. It gave way on that side, and in Jess was led to a conical room made of earth.

Not quite cone-shaped. It was oblong. Oblong and an upside-down cone, with a spiral stone staircase built from the wall, climbing all the way to the top. It started out narrow, the room about five feet around on the ground.

"What the—"

"Oh. It's you," droned the voice of the King. "I do hope the door leading to the waters of Lethe didn't give you a start. You've still got your memory in tact, haven't you?"

"Can I please look at the person to whom I am speaking?" Jess commanded, planting her hands firmly on her hips. Before her eyes there suddenly dangled a pair of booted feet as the King perched on the spiral stairs. He smirked down at Jess, his sudden serenity putting Jess off of her ease.

"I am impressed, to tell the truth," he cooed, dancing a crystal ball between his fingers. "I had a little talk with the _child_ you're supposed to be caring for, and she indirectly gave me some valuable advice."

"Oh? And what was that?"

"To stop insulting your intelligence," he explained, "and start playing this game in a way that will interest you."

His voice came from behind Jess now, and it took her eyes a moment to catch up as she looked over her shoulder at him. One of his arms snaked around Jess' shoulders as he pulled her back into his grip, looking down broodingly into her eyes.

"Watch carefully," he whispered, casting the crystal ball forward with as little effort as blowing on a bubble. It broke in the center of the room and a single, tiny white daisy sprung up from the bricks. Jess broke her attention away from his proximity, with surprising difficulty, and watched the stairs as seemingly random steps vanished momentarily. Within a second, they came back.

Jess had been particularly puzzled by the start of the stairs. The first was sunk into the floor, twice as wide as the rest. The next two steps up had vanished as well, but it was an easy step to the fourth. Beyond that, the spacing slowed until she hadn't detected any missing steps toward the top.

"What—"

"Good luck." Jess heard a crack, and he was gone, leaving her with a shiver.

There was only one way to start, puzzled as she was, so Jess braced her hands on the fourth step and clambered up awkwardly. Jess recalled the next step having vanished, so leaning against the dirt wall, she took a cautious step onto the sixth.

Jess hadn't realized she'd been holding her breath until she exhausted a relieved sigh.

"Okay. Alright. Now the next step…was still here, I think," Jess muttered to herself. At the next step her memory proved to side with her. "The first three steps are missing…and then it's one safe step…ah!" The next step must not be safe, Jess reasoned, for there had been two safe steps since the last missing one. "This is easy, I just have to keep in mind what number step I'm on."

Jess looked back and counted as she stepped over the eighth step. Nine, ten, eleven. "And I skip twelve."

One foot onto the thirteenth step, Jess was confident, even celebratory in her discovery. But as her second foot rested on that step, it gave from under her and she fell right through. "AH!"

It took Jess a moment to figure what had happened, but she was standing on the bottom step, the wider one which was sunk into the floor. Certain she hadn't miscounted, her brow tightened in confusion, watching as the steps fazed out again and then returned. On a quick count, Jess noted that the thirteenth, not the twelfth, was a false step. That broke her pattern.

"One safe step, then two safe steps, then four," Jess mumbled, wracking her brain for any pattern she had seen that coincided. "It doubles every time."

So Jess tried again. She stepped onto the twelfth stair and passed the thirteenth, counting up eight steps, and judged that the twenty-first step would be her last safe one. And once Jess reached it, she realized that yet again, her pattern had been an erroneous one.

The teleport from this step to the first made Jess' head spin. "Augh…why does it keep happening?" Jess moaned. "Alright. The missing ones are this first one…two, three, five, eight, thirteen, twenty-one—"

That seemed so vaguely familiar to Jess but she could not place it for her life. And then she looked at the white daisy in the middle. And then she looked up into the seemingly disproportional spiral.

These symbols had some correlation; Jess just knew it.

And then a shape moved, very slightly, out of the corner of her eye, and Jess watched the spiraled shell of a snail as it left its silky trail on the dirt wall. Jess clapped her hands in revelation. "Fibonacci sequence!"

Jess tested it out. Five plus eight is thirteen. Thirteen plus eight, twenty-one. And so the next one…"Thirty-four." Carefully controlling her excitement so as not to miscount, Jess dashed up the stairs to the thirty-third, and held her breath as she skipped the next. It was still only a theory, however, so she approached the fifty-fifth stair with caution, after she had made the calculation.

"Hah! All those times I thought math wouldn't help me in real life." And it was a really bad idea to have said that out loud because Jess had just lost count. "Crap."

Jess was at least seventy stairs up, but she was not sure exactly how many, and every time she tried to count she couldn't tell where one stair started and the next ended. This was bad.

Jess shook her head, going on the last number that had popped into her head. Eighty-eight. Which meant the next must be eighty-nine, so she skipped it, and—"AURGH!" Jess found herself back at the beginning, winded and very dizzy. "This is stupid!"

Jess glared at everything, anger boiling in her veins, and checked her watch. Jess had only been at this for ten minutes, but considering she was already back at the bottom and the staircase was a good couple _thousand flipping steps,_ this puzzle would be the death of her.

Deep breath. There had to be a shortcut. Jess couldn't believe she hadn't thought of that before; Jess had climbed the walls, punched a hole in the King's attempt at a paradoxical puzzle, and noticed his careless trail of camera-like crystal balls leading her right to the castle. The place was riddled with shortcuts for anyone with a tiny sliver of wit, and Jess was beginning to feel quite the genius.

Jess just needed to find the shortcut here.

Give it a moment.

The step she was standing on could very well be a two-sided portal. If she stepped through it here…where would she end up?

Jess took a step back, out onto the floor, and then jumped onto the wide step. In a flash and tizzy, Jess found herself groping the wall for balance and looking down into a dark, endless, spiraling staircase. Her heart raced with hope and when she looked ahead of her, there was a stone-arched exit.

Fist-pump into the air in victorious jubilation.


	6. The building blocks

Jessica's POV:

"You know—"

"AH!"

The King, leaned preponderantly against a sparkling stone wall as once again I found myself back in the labyrinth, chuckled heartily at my anger-tinged surprise.

"I've never had a player as intelligent as you," he said, eyes locked on me and hips swishing as he slowly advanced. "I can't figure whether it is refreshing or disconcerting."

"What's disconcerting is falling twelve feet into a dirt deathtrap, you royal pr—"

A gloved forefinger stopped my lips, the King's other hand stopping the fist I had raised toward him "It wouldn't have killed you. And it didn't."

He removed his fingers but before I spoke, he spoke again.

"I did warn you about the stairs. I told you."

This only served to provoke my rage. "Stairs! You sent me into a shifting stone maze with hidden death traps and weird talking animals, and you warned me about _stairs!_"

"It was not a death trap, it was an oubliette."

"Screw you and your pointless French terminology!"

He looked at me with an eyebrow raised and a smug smile. Seeing I was puzzled, his eyes flickered over my shoulder and I realized my fingers were still entwined with his. With a blush and a grunt I let go, remaining silent. But my hand immediately pined for the warmth of his.

Ignore.

"Well what next, Your Royal Rudeness? I still need to reach your castle," I grumbled.

The King sighed, looking rejected. "You can call me Jareth."

"Excuse me?"

"Jareth. It's my name."

"Why should I care?" I sneered. "I should call you 'kidnapper.' Maybe 'pervert.' But most likely, I will address you as 'jerk,' because that pretty much sums you up. A jerk with a pretty face."

He chuckled, fairly gazing at me in adoration. While I was insulting him. "But if you are to stay here with me, to be the queen of your own world, perhaps you should call me by my rightful name."

"Whoa, no one said anything about queen! Where did this come from?"

"Ah, right. Fine print," he explained sheepishly. "You do get whatever you want, yes; essentially a world of your own. You get to pull the strings and fiddle with the illusions…but you must be my queen."

Despite how sick it made me feel, the proposition gave me a startlingly pleasant feeling. My cheeks heated up and my heart began to race, and I briefly entertained the sick fantasy of actually becoming Jareth's queen, staying with him in this twisted realm. But I shook the thought away, glared at him, and started back through the labyrinth just to get away.

"You still have eleven hours and fifty minutes to consider," he called, I felt a rush of wind accompanied by a puff of glitter.

Had I already been in here that long? Upon consulting the watch, I supposed I had. I began brisk-walking blindly through the maze, nearly forgetting to check for the crystal balls.

The walls rose higher and higher around me, giving me a dash of claustrophobia with some insignificance mixed in. Suddenly, I felt as small as the blue worm. Even the bricks of the walls were positively monstrous.

I came to a dead end, and when I turned around to backtrack, I found myself boxed in. again. Turning back around, I glared at the wall in front of me and willed it to move. I could try scaling it, but there were no vines.

About three feet up, there was a ledge marking a rectangular indentation in the wall that took up most of it with the exception of a three-foot border, which didn't cover the top. Curious, I hoisted myself up onto the ledge and pushed at the bricks, but they showed no sign of giving. When I looked back, I saw, to my astonishment, a pile of bricks by the far wall.

I supposed I could use them as steps…

In the same instant, I began climbing off the ledge and something obnoxious and fluttery caught me right in the face. I nearly fell backward, flailing and blowing at the thing in my face. It dropped very suddenly to the ground and my heart thundered from the almost-fall as I slid off the ledge to investigate.

It was a tiny, humanoid creature with delicate wings. "I don't believe it…"

I reached out to pick the thing up, but as soon as my finger came into its reach, it seized me with two tiny hands and dug its small, needle-like teeth into my fingertip.

"Ow!" Glaring, I kicked dust over the fairy, not even sorry to hear her delicate cough. "You deserved it!"

The bricks were cut into odd shapes; some jagged, some t-shaped, cross-shaped, l-shaped, and some just simply squares. This looked vaguely familiar.

None of the bricks were very heavy, which I supposed I could attribute to the magic and general nonsense of the entire maze. In any case, it made them easy to transport, and so I took one block about two square feet and placed it on the ledge. When I traveled back over to the pile, and then looked up at the towering wall, I realized this would take a ridiculous amount of time and there was no way I would be able to do this.

"Come on, shortcut, please," I muttered, looking around for something to help me. But, as I had noted earlier, there were no vines. There were no loose bricks anywhere for me to scale. I did a quick walk around the walls, pushing and peeking, but all was stable and connected. "This is ridiculous."

Another fairy flitted up into my grill.

"Will you knock it off!" I swatted her away but she flew right back at me, arms folded and tongue out. "What do you want, anyway?"

This one had soft blue eyes and a fairly plump form, and she glared at me crossly, before looking up at the top of the wall.

"What?"

She flew up and away instantly, and before I could get mad, she hit some invisible barrier and came tumbling back down. I barely caught her before she collided with the ground.

"You can't get out of here?"

She shook her head, incidentally shaking loose some fine golden glitter.

"Hey, you're a fairy," I stated, and she gave me a smart-alec look. "Yes, whatever. You…can use magic, right? To make people fly? To make things fly?"

The fairy nodded, scratching her tiny head.

"Do you think you can make these blocks fly?"

She looked behind me at the blocks, then back at the wall, and then she pointed at the base of it, where still lied the fairy I had knocked down earlier. She pointed hard and glared at me.

"I'm sorry about that…" I walked over and picked up the other one, gently blowing dirt off her wings. She reached out to bite my thumb but I moved the digit quickly. "Hey. I'm sorry, okay? I'm trying to get out of here, and I think that's what you're trying to do, too. Do you think we can collaborate?"

She pondered the gesture, and the other fairy spoke with her in a voice so high and small it almost sounded like inaudible tinkling. Soon, the thinner fairy nodded, and I carried them both back to the pile of bricks.

"Let's start with that one."

I pointed, and to my astonishment, the brick seemed to levitate of its own accord, surrounded by tiny flecks of gold.

The process went quickly. I would instruct for them to bring a block and they would bring it, I would tell them where to put it so that it would all fit into a staircase design. Once I had got to the top of my first set of steps, I had them build another on the other side, and within fifteen minutes I had made it to the top. The fairies' bodies sagged tiredly, but once they looked down, they were overjoyed.

Perched atop the wall, I looked down the other side to a sturdy flight of stairs leading back down into the labyrinth. "Yes!"

They climbed down a couple steps and flew off without so much as a thank you, but I didn't care much, descending myself. But as I set foot on the third-to-last step, it vanished and I fell with a thud into a soft blue patch of grass.

* * *

"She's far too clever," Jareth muttered.

"Well it wasn't that hard," said Rachel, laying boredly on her back. "She plays a game what's like that sometimes. She tried to get me to play but I didn't get it. Daddy gets it, though."

"Well your _daddy_ sounds like an annoyingly clever fellow."

"He is." She sighed. "But what's the thing what's most annoying is that he talks about her like she's mommy sometimes."

"Her?"

"My babysitter."

Jareth eyed the girl curiously. "You're awfully observant."

"What's that means?"

The king silently returned to looking into the crystal ball. "And does she fancy your father?" he asked, holding three fingers to his lips in ponder.

Rachel sighed. "I dunno. Sometimes I think so."

"Well perhaps," he said, "I can test this theory. Time for some dreaming, perhaps."

* * *

**Hello! sorry for the long wait. I was going to upload but on the 13th my 6from bus crashed and I flew out the window. One more day in this hell hole of a Hospital and Ill be out!:D**


	7. The Cackling Canine

Jess' POV (As always)

I came-to to the warm, wet tongue of a lapping dog, all over my face, ear and neck. "Augh—no! Stop!" Sitting up, I shoed the furry creature away. It was short with long, white hair, and pointed ears, like a wolf's. Its snout was pointed and it barked relentlessly.

"Ah, stop!" My head throbbed and I picked up a convenient pebble, throwing it far off into the strange new dark place. The tiny dog ceased barking and chased after it as quickly as a squirrel skittering up a tree.

"Ay, s'you again," a tiny voice nearly shouted in my ear. "Sure took a long fall, ya did."

"Ugh, I know…it keeps happening," I groaned, rubbing my head where it hurt and blinking into the dim space. Above me was seemingly nothing but a solid rock cave, the ceiling of which was several meters above the ground. "I'm beginning to dislike stairs."

"I did warn you not to go down that way, din' I," the worm said smugly. I sat up and glared across at it, rubbing my shoulder.

"Yes, well, I needed to get to the castle. Still do. So how…" I looked ahead to where the grass receded into a very blue pool. It seemed to be the source of light, and it was very surreal. Standing slowly, I walked to the edge and peered down. It was shallow, and very clear, very inviting—but I didn't trust it. "What is that?"

"It's water. Have ya really hit yer head that hard?"

"I know it's water!" I snapped at the creature. "But why is it _glowing_?"

"Dun' ask me, I have no idea."

Freckling the water was a pattern of stones, each equidistant from each other and staggered. Only one was close enough to reach on foot, the others all much too far apart to go stone-hopping. Across the expanse of rocks and water, the other side of the cave bore an opening. It looked like the only way out. "What am I supposed to do?"

"How'm I supposed to know?"

"Why are you even here?"

The worm let out a disgruntled "hmph," and I took my first tentative step onto the one stone I could reach. I felt a small click under my foot like I had cracked an acorn, and suddenly, a glassy blue sheet of ice stretched out over a six-by-four-stones rectangle. "What the…"

"Wait, come back!" cried the worm. "If you take one wrong step the rock'll disappear and you'll fall inta the water!"

I turned sharply, arms flailing for balance on the suddenly slippery surface. "So you _do_ know how to solve this thing?"

The worm sighed, nearly invisible among the blue grass. "Well I know how to solve it but I don' know _how._ I never understood the tick marks!"

"Tick marks?"

"On each rock," he said. "Each rock at the edge of the ice, of course."

"Meaning?"

"There are sinking rocks," he said. "And the tick marks tell ya how many sinkin' rock are touchin' it. But they don't tell ya where. It's dangerous! Come back!"

I turned your back, ignoring him. "Great. First Tetris, now Minesweeper. Can we get out of the '80s, please?"

* * *

"Ew don't lick that, you don't know where that money has been!" cried Rachel, prying a short little goblin away from the pile of gold he was licking. "Ugh goblins are so rude!"

"He likes the taste of it, leave him alone," Jareth snapped. "Well, she's in the Icebreakers room. No one can solve that one."

"Well she can."

"Yeah, and unicorns exist," Jareth scoffed.

Rachel let go of the wriggling goblin and looked back in horror. "Wait, there's no such thing as unicorns?"

The King sighed, body draped languidly in his throne as he gazed at his crystal ball from afar. "Look, she's already floundering. It's a shame, I might not get to play my little mind tricks after all…"

* * *

It looked like I was stuck. It really did. Because the little tick marks in the ice told me absolutely nothing. So much necessary concentration was not going on, and I was not even half way to the wall. "Ugh…this is ridiculous."

To top it off, the dang dog had come back and was barking at me. Every time I almost could potentially concentrate, it would start yapping again. I turned around and shouted over my shoulder, "Shut _up!_"

Apparently, "shut up" translated to "come here," and the white pom-pom of an animal skidded right across the ice. This spelled D-A-N-G-E-R to you, because the creature was literally bounding straight for my legs. She came closer and closer, and I stalled, unsure of how to escape, because the edge was right behind me and if I took another step I might—"AH!"

The warm, fuzzy thing collided with my shins and I stumbled back, expecting to fall into icy cold, fluorescent water, but something crunched under my heal and I was saved by a fresh expanse of ice stretching out behind me. I looked around, panting, and then looked at the dog now on its hind legs, pawing up at me.

"Ow, ow, stop! That hurts!"

Once I gave the thing attention, it trotted off very determinedly over the ice, intentionally breaking what I had deduced were some kind of magical ice crystal created specifically for the purposes of this game. Within a minute, the dog had the entire puzzle solved, and all I had to do was follow it to the end, where it awaited me with an open, barking muzzle.

I made my way across with a puzzled look at the dog, snatching up a couple of the ice crystals on my way, just for fun. Perhaps I could cheat my way out of another puzzle.

I found myself on solid ground where the dog continued to bark. The sound echoed deafeningly and I crouched down, trying to pet the dog into silence, but it kept poking its nose at my hand.

"Hey, stop. Stop!" I grabbed it by the sides, and it stopped barking, fluffy tail swishing from side to side as it tried to lick my hand. "So you're a girl, huh? Do you have a name?"

Of course the dog couldn't answer (although, I supposed it was strange to have a non-talking animal in this place), but she looked up at me with big, curious eyes, and I sort of took that for a no.

"Well. You're white…you're soft…" I said, finally able to pet between her triangular ears, "And you're energetic. Borderline spastic. There's only one name for you: Cocaine."

She barked in acceptance, licking my palm which I wiped off, and instead of following, she practically led me right out of the cave.

"Well, that wasn't so bad," I said once I was out. "For an annoying little twerp, you did save my life."

She stood proudly in front of me, surveying the labyrinth from her tiny height before bolting forward down a path on the left. I did not balk at the offer, for upon consulting my watch, I realized I had spent nearly a half hour in that section alone; so I followed Cocaine down through the labyrinth, through several twists and turns, and when she decided I'd been out of her sight for too long she would turn around and bark until she saw me. Once, I rounded the corner and she stopped barking immediately, tail swishing from side to side. She crouched playfully, nearly grinning, and dashed around the next corner with a coy growl.

"You have as much diva in you as Jareth does," I called.

I noticed something was wrong when I couldn't see her, and she wasn't barking. A bit concerned, I followed the only path available, for it hadn't forked in awhile; and I came upon a vast expanse of bright, orange flowers with broad, silky petals and thick green stems.

Folding my arms, I rolled my eyes and leaned against the wall, sighing at the sight of the white pom-pom asleep in the poppies.

* * *

**Sorry for the deley and any mistakes, Iv had a bad week. **


End file.
